Biggest Preseason Question: Carolina Hurricanes

Do They Have Enough Firepower To Win A Cup?

      The Hurricanes have been the model of consistency, winning the Metropolitan Division each of the past three seasons and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final twice in the past five years. Unfortunately, both of those deep playoff runs ended in sweeps as their offense dried up against elite competition. The loss of potent scoring winger Andrei Svechnikov combined with Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky catching fire between the pipes to end Carolina’s most recent bid for Lord Stanley. While these seem like isolated incidents, they illustrate a weakness that’s plagued this otherwise impeccable squad for some time: a lack of elite offensive firepower.

      Head coach Rod Brind’Amour is considered one of the best coaches in the league, thanks to his ability to get every player in the lineup to buy into his relentless, high pressure schemes. The Canes never take a night off, bombarding opponents with incessant waves of forecheckers and fortifying their defensive zone with an opportunistic system of organized aggression. These tactics have punched Carolina’s ticket to the postseason in each of Brind’Amour’s five years behind the bench, despite the fact that the Cane’s haven’t had a single player break 90 points in any of those seasons (Sebastian Aho came the closest with 83 in 2018-19).

      While Brind’Amour’s tactics have brought Carolina a long way from their previous residence in the mushy middle of the standings, they put an enormous toll on the players through 82 games of hard fought competition. During each postseason exit, the team seemed to run out of gas and struggle to maintain the pace necessary to implement such a demanding style of play. These are games where you need the luxury of an elite sniper who can relieve pressure from your defense with an easy goal once in a while. 

      This problem looked to be solved last season with the acquisition of Max Pacioretty and the continued development of Svechnikov. Unfortunately for Carolina, some terrible injury luck ended both their seasons early (Pacioretty’s never really even got started as he suffered back-back-to back achilles tears) and they were forced to march into the playoffs without their top scoring threats. 

      With Pacioretty’s departure via free agency and Svechnikov’s availability for opening night uncertain (he’s still working his way back from last year’s brutal knee injury) the Canes were expected to bring in scoring help during the offseason. Known commodities like Vladimir Tarasenko, Matt Duchene, and Thomas Tatar were available on the free agent market at a discount thanks to lingering effects of the COVID cap crunch, while budding stars Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alex DeBrincat were actively shopped on the trade market. 

      Instead of making a push for these seemingly obvious choices, the Canes stuck to their unconventional philosophy of zigging while the rest of the league zagged. They brought Tony Deangelo back from Philadelphia in hopes he could replicate the offense he produced from the blue line in his last stint in Carolina. As if this team didn’t have enough grit already, they also added Michael Bunting, a young, hard-nosed wing who’d piled up points while doing the dirty work on a line with superstars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in Toronto.

      Maybe these moves pay off and the additions prove to be just what the doctor ordered. These guys are both talented and Brind’Amour has a knack for getting the most out of his players. Svechnikov could pick up right where he left off, and if everyone stays healthy this is an incredibly dangerous team. Without a plethora of elite scorers though, they’re going to need to sustain their pace of play through 4 rounds of the toughest playoffs on earth, and that might mean letting off the gas a little during the grind of the regular season. Rod “The Bod” might not have that in his DNA, but if he wants to win a cup with this team as head coach after stamping his name on it as captain in 2006, he may need to learn how to choose his battles. You can’t crank up the intensity for the playoffs if you already treat every regular season game like the Stanley Cup Final.